Four Times Sabo Almost Remembered His Brothers
by Pachimew
Summary: (and the One Time He Did). SaboxKoala sibling relationship. Made mostly of headcanons. A short drabble I banged out in two days because I felt like it.
**...Oops?**

 **I don't own One Piece. Enjoy your heartbreak!**

* * *

 **One**

The first time was when he first met Koala.

He was twelve, and she was thirteen, and the first look she gave him was curiosity that turned to a scowl, and something twinged in his mind.

"This is Koala," Dragon introduced them, "Our best student in Fishman Karate. Koala, this is Sabo. I've been training him in hand-to-hand combat. Be nice."

The scowl slid off Koala's face, to be replaced by a tentative but wary smile that Sabo returned.

"Nice to meet you," Sabo said, offering a hand. She took it, shook it, and the next thing Sabo knew, she had flipped him over her shoulder and he was lying on the ground.

"Ah," Dragon said, "I forgot to mention to you, Sabo. You two are going to be sparring partners for a while."

Sabo thought that he could've said something _earlier,_ and barely managed to keep his mouth shut about it. Koala was grinning at him.

"So," she said cheerfully, "Dragon-san's trained you himself? You don't have much to show for it, do you, curly-top?"

Sabo scrambled to his feet and got into a fighting stance. "That was dirty."

"That was _tricky,"_ Koala countered, "Anything goes until someone tells me we aren't sparring anymore." She lunged forwards almost before she finished speaking.

Sabo dodged, lashed out with a Dragon's Claw, which she blocked. Then she swept a leg at his feet, and Sabo jumped back, then darted forwards. She blocked him again.

And so it went, back-and-forth, until finally Sabo managed to punch her in the stomach.

"One-one, Koala to Sabo," Dragon called, and when Sabo looked over in confusion, he saw that Dragon had managed to set up a blackboard split into a T-chart, counting his and Koala's hits. While he was distracted, Koala slammed a punch into his gut, and Dragon marked a tally under Koala's name. "Two-one, Koala to Sabo," he announced.

Something twinged again in the back of his mind as looked up at Koala, who was grinning victoriously. For just an instant, he saw the face of someone else, a freckled, black-haired boy.

And then it was gone, and Sabo got up and shoved it from his mind. He got into a fighting stance, determined to beat, or at least catch up to, Koala.

* * *

 **Two**

The second time was when he saw Dragon laugh.

He couldn't remember what it was that had caused it, honestly. Maybe it was because of a prank someone had pulled. Maybe it was because of a joke someone had cracked. Maybe it was just because one of the odd eccentricities of Dragon's mind had found something funny, and nobody else could see the cause for hilarity.

Whatever the cause, it made Dragon laugh, long and loud, his head thrown back and his mouth stretched wide.

Sabo was fourteen, and it was dinnertime, and he was frozen with a fork halfway to his mouth. That smile was so utterly familiar, and that laugh in all its easiness sounded like _family_ in his ears. For a minute he saw a small boy with a scar under his left eye instead of the full grown man with strange tattoos. Sabo's brain almost broke, trying to figure out _where where where had he seen this smile before?_

Then Koala poked him in the ribs, making him yelp and nearly drop the fork, and the spell broke. Dragon finished his laugh, heaved a small 'ahhhhh' of post-hilarity, and resumed eating with his normal absolute deadpan.

"Koala?" Sabo asked a moment later, "Does Dragon have a son?"

Koala looked startled, then shrugged. "Not one that I've heard about. But you could ask him later."

Sabo nodded and made a mental note to ask.

He would have, too, but after dinner Ivankov showed up, distracting him from the question. Iva being a very distracting person in general, Sabo completely forgot about it, and the question went unasked.

The next time he saw Dragon laugh, he thought it sounded familiar, but he put that aside and never mentioned it. The vision of the boy did not appear again.

* * *

 **Three**

The third time was when he was dreaming.

He couldn't tell you what the dream had been about, but he knew it had been deep and vivid, and he knew that he'd woken up with two names on his lips, a certainty in his gut, a feeling of peace and belonging and _family._

He was sixteen, and for an instant, the block on his memories trembled, cracked, threatened to come crashing down. It wasn't the first time such a thing had happened, but before now Sabo had always shored up his defenses, put the thought out of his mind, reinforced the block. His only true knowledge of his past was that he never wanted to go back, and with that ethic in mind he had stubbornly avoided anything that might trigger his memories.

He had been a willing amnesiac; but in the wake of that dream, that wonderful, wonderful dream, Sabo almost ached to remember, and the wall would have come crashing down-

Except that Koala (it was always Koala, but he didn't blame her for that) burst into his room yelling about some new pirate, and the dream evaporated like morning dew.

She dragged him out of bed and down to look at the morning newspaper over breakfast ("You couldn't have just brought the newspaper?" Sabo had grumbled), and he'd only half paid attention to the names.

"And why," Sabo asked in the almost-drawl he adopted when sleepy or condensing, "Do we care about…" He glanced at the wanted poster in the paper. "Fire Fist Ace?"

"Heck if I know," Koala said with a flick of her wrist, "But Dragon-san chuckled when he saw the poster, so I figure this guy has got to be important somehow."

Sabo blinked slowly, then shrugged. "Well, keep tabs on him then. And next time, please don't drag me out of bed to show me a wanted poster."

"I've dragged you out of bed for less," Koala teased, flicking him.

"Ah, yes," Sabo chuckled, "I seem to recall the Great Ice Cream Adventure at One in the Morning of my fifteenth year."

They snickered together about that, and again, in the wake of Sabo's dream, the block on his memories trembled, and for a moment he saw a boy with a scar yelling about adventure.

And then it was gone. If Sabo ever had that dream again, he didn't remember it.

* * *

 **Four**

The fourth time was because of Koala, again.

He was eighteen, and she was nineteen, and the Army was partying for reasons Sabo hadn't paid attention to. He wasn't much for parties, anyways, preferring to hole himself up somewhere (usually the library or his room) with a good book.

Unless Koala or someone dragged him into the party. But this time, when Koala showed up, she dragged him _away_ from the party.

"There's something I want to show you," she'd grinned, and Sabo just shrugged and went along with it.

As it turned out, she'd found a way to the rooftop, and it was perfect for stargazing. She wanted to share it with him. Sabo was touched.

So they stargazed, talking about nothing in particular, until Sabo mentioned something about alcohol and Koala grinned slyly and pulled out a bottle of saké.

Sabo's jaw dropped. "Where did you get that from?"

"Grabbed it off the table," Koala shrugged nonchalantly, producing two saké cups as well.

"No, no, I mean, where were you keeping them?" Sabo hadn't seen the bottle or cups at all until she'd pulled them out. That couldn't be possible.

Koala just grinned and put a finger to her lips. "Trade secret."

Sabo decided to let it go. Koala uncorked the bottle, and was about to pour it, when Sabo grabbed her arm. It felt like his hand had moved by itself, and the surprise on her face reflected the surprise he felt.

Sabo spoke, words falling from his mouth almost without thought. "Did you know," he said, "if you exchange vows with someone over a cup of saké, you become siblings?"

Koala blinked at him with something like shock in her eyes. Sabo was pretty shocked himself, but the image of a freckled boy grinning as he opened a saké bottle was strong in his mind, in Koala's smile, and the wide eyes of a boy with a straw hat and a scar were superimposed over her own.

Then she smiled, but tentatively, a mixture of shock and pleasure. "Are you offering to become brother and sister, Sabo?"

"We've known each other long enough," Sabo said, then corrected himself, "We practically are already. All the adventures we've had together, all the missions-"

"That you blew," she reminded him with a grin.

"I seem to recall the time you decided to 'screw the mission' because our targets were abusing Fishmen," Sabo countered with a good-natured grin.

"Better than the time you almost punched a Celestial Dragon in the face," Koala countered. Sabo mock-pouted.

"He deserved it."

"They always do." There was a pause before she offered him the bottle. "You wanna pour the saké of siblinghood?"

Sabo took it with a grin. "From this day onwards," he announced as he poured the saké, the words coming from someplace behind the block on his memories, "no matter what we do, no matter where we are…" He set the saké bottle down and picked up his cup, Koala lifting hers a moment later. "Our bonds will never break! We are siblings!"

"Siblings," Koala echoed with a grin. They tapped their cups together and drank deeply.

Then they were quiet, smiling up at the stars. Sabo's hidden memories sang out from behind their block, an itching feeling that there was something _important_ he was forgetting.

But he could ignore them in favor of the wonderful feeling of lightness and joy that came from the small ceremony.

 _Sister._

Sabo treasured the bond.

* * *

 **(Five)**

The fifth time wasn't _almost._

He was twenty years old, Chief of Staff, and it was just after the War of the Best at Marineford.

He was just passing through to see if everyone in the Army was all right- he'd heard that Iva had been there- and as he was in the room, someone had mentioned that among the dead was Fire Fist Ace.

The name made Sabo pause. At that point, it was mostly because he remembered sleepily telling Koala to keep tabs on him when she'd first showed him the bounty, all those years ago.

Then someone mentioned Dragon was Straw Hat Luffy's father, and Sabo recalled that once upon a time, he'd meant to ask Dragon if he had a son.

And then he recalled the freckled boy he'd seen in Koala time and time again. This time, he heard his voice.

" _I'm gonna be a pirate!"_

The block on his memories didn't just tremble. It cracked.

Hadn't they…hadn't he done a ceremony with that boy? And with the one with the scar? A ceremony like the one he'd done with Koala, two years past?

Sabo felt himself breathing hard.

"Sabo-kun? What's the matter?" He heard Koala ask, "You're acting weirder than usual…" the teasing tone in her voice wavered, like she knew that something was seriously wrong.

"Apparently Ace was run through by Akainu-"

" _Hey guys, did you know…?"_

The block went past cracking. It _shattered._

" _If you exchange vows with someone over a cup of saké, you become brothers!"_

 _That…that's right…_ Sabo thought, trembling as his tears overflowed. _The person who was killed…isn't just some nameless pirate…not just a must-kill major player…_

And then he screamed.

 _Ace is my brother!_

And between the agony of losing Ace, the shock of remembering, and the total, intense overload of emotion, Sabo fainted.

(Somewhere in the back of his mind, as he heard Koala scream his name, he realized that the reason he'd been drawn to her in the first place was because she reminded him of his brothers.)

* * *

 **Yeah...this is probably going to turn out to be non-canon when/if more of Sabo and Koala's Revolutionary past is revealed. A girl can dream, can't she?**

 **Check out Triple Switch if you have the time! Hope you enjoyed!**

 **(Edit: I've been informed that Koala joined the Army when she was fourteen, not thirteen, but _shhhh_ let's just skirt around that minor issue and recall that this is made of headcanons _shhhhh_ )**

 **Edit #2: Apparently I didn't mark this as complete? It's done you guys. It's a one shot. This is it. Don't follow just favorite.**


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